Ron lasted 17 months, after “one of the most aggressively unsuccessful tenures in retail history”

Secret to Successful Cultural Change

Good team leaders know when to stress the similarity or continuity. They usually do that when there is a pervasive feeling that too much change is creeping in.

Conversely, they can declare two elements to be different een though they are very similar. Again, good team leaders have a sense of when to stress the differences despite the recognisable similarities

These examples adjust the transmission of culture by emphasising or de-emphasising aspects of the culture through the description of the transmission. This is an example of the force of entropy

The description exerts a kind of force. It is encourages you to think about the replication in a certain way, also to reason about it in a certain way. In this case, in terms of differences between the element and its predecessor. The emphasis is on the difference.

Introducing the Force of Interest

The Secret to Successful Culture Change: the new culture must appear to grow organically out of the old culture. It must be new enough to be recognisable as different, but also sufficiently similar that its relationship to the old culture can be sensed.

Feelings or affections can propel the motion of culture, or inhibit it. These feelings are hugely influential.

Interest at the Interface between Different Inertial Patterns

Interest is shaped by culture: although affects and emotions are related to our biological processes as human beings, their mapping onto specific elements of culture can vary

Strong affective responses, and therefore the forces of interest, frequently appear when two different inertial patterns come into contact

Habitual culture is not really thought about, and hence the force of interest does not come into play there

However, when the habits are removed or retarted, the force of interest can be very powerful (e.g. craving food from native land when away for a long period)

Spacial distance between two people having a converstation. Depending upon the comfortable separation distance for each of the speakers, the force of interest may be neutral, compel them closer or compel them to separate. Habitual inertia is interest neutral

Force of interest can either work to keep culture static, or it could drive culture to change.

It’s at the heart of successful culture change

Model T Ford worked on the same model every year

GM used a different strategy: a new model every year (though only slightly new)

Incremental new-ness can a positive attractive force.

cars

language

Interest appears as a driving force, moving the culture forward in a way similar to evolution.

The Conditional Motion of Culture

Culture seems to move directly because of the interest in it

Sometimes the movement of culture is more obviously just a condition for something else that people are interested in

For example, culture can be changed because a powerful person decrees it, and can threaten punishments. People have a strong interest in avoiding punishment. See Egyptian example earlier.

Regime put in place by military: the interest is in the consequences of accepting or not accepting the culture

Wages of employment:

employment involves culturally acquired practices

the reason for engaging in those practices may not be a direct interest in them

interest may actually be in the money earned, and the things the money will allow them do do (eat, leasure time)

Sometimes the interest actually is for the thing they do.

Work culture over time can become habitual intertial culture

The conversion of conditional into habitual cultural motion: a conversion can take place between the conditional and habitual motion of culture, such that the interest that is initially in something else can become interest in the cultural practices themselves

Conclusion

The inertial forces: culture gets passed on first and foremost because it is there to be acquired and because it becomes habit

Entropic force (drift): the tendency towards disorder in the transmission of culture

this works against inertia

this means leads may have to step in to keep cultural elements the same, or try to affect changes

Reflective or metacultural forces: metaculture is culture that is about (or reflects upon) other culture. Metacultural force result from reflection about culture

The forces of interest: these are produced by the feelings and emotions.

they impel or retard the movement of cultural elements

a good leader understands the emotional responses to cultural elements, and uses this to affect change

People in teams are motivated by more than money, or the fear of punishment. They are guided also by the shining ideals that the team embodies, ideals that they try to live up to in their daily lives and activities